Millions of Turks flocked to the squares of 81 Turkish provincial capital cities for two whole nights as an act of vigil to defend democracy as they did a year ago on July 15 to foil a bloody coup staged by the Fetullah Gülen terrorist gang.
On that night, the supporters of Fetullah Gülen, who has turned out to be an American puppet, tried to take over the Turkish state and disband all democratic institutions led by the Turkish Parliament through his supporters embedded in the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK).
Until then it was no secret that Gülen's gang had managed to infiltrate all Turkish state institutions, the judiciary, the police force, the business community and the educational institutions. Yet it came as a shock to see how deep they had infiltrated the military.
The coup failed not because the Gülenists were incompetent, but because they never took into account the fact that the Turkish people would turn out in the streets in their masses to put down the coup with their bare hands. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called on the people to fight to their death to preserve democracy and that is what the people did.
At first, some Americans, who clearly supported the coup that night, were full of jubilation claiming President Erdoğan has been toppled. Then the euphoria died down and the American handlers of Gülen realized they had failed badly.
So the American press went on a rampage of anti-Turkish propaganda which has turned out to be a concerted effort to bolster the Gülen gang.
On Saturday, millions turned out in Istanbul to protest the failed coup and commemorate the 250 people killed and 2,193 wounded by the coup plotters. It was a magnificent show of unity and support for President Erdoğan. The same happened in Ankara where the coup plotters had attacked Parliament, the presidential compound, the police headquarters and communication centers with F-16 fighters and helicopter gunships. The huge crowds responded to Erdoğan's call to return to the streets for 48 hours to display support for democracy, and that is what the people did throughout Turkey.
Now we see with deep disgust that the most prominent newspapers in the U.S. are again on the rampage to discredit Turkey and even question whether what we suffered on July 15, 2016 was a coup or not.
Fetullah Gülen was once again allowed to appear in an interview with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) disclaiming he had anything to do with the coup. The WSJ tried to create the image of a moderate Islamic preacher who is full of goodwill and has nothing to do with violence. He even hinted this was not a coup but a plot to defame him. If the Wall Street Journal executives and their people here were not living in another planet for the past few years, they would have known very well what Gülen is and what he stands for, and they would have never tried to be a part of this ugly perception campaign. But it seems the hatred against Erdoğan and the sweet taste of money dished out by Gülen in the U.S. was more attractive than the facts.
They only had to look at some of the videos of Gülen recorded in the past year threatening Turkey and Erdoğan, insulting the Turkish people and cursing his adversaries. They should also have looked into some fine details on how little regard this so-called Muslim preacher has for Islam. No Muslim preacher would ever stand on a prayer mat with his shoes as we saw in the WSJ photo of Gülen.
Similar articles ridiculing the coup attempt, claiming it is a stage act have appeared in the Washington Post on the anniversary of the coup plot while The New York Times preferred to lambast the Turkish prison system in an article by an opposition Turkish deputy.
Yet the Turkish people gave a sounding reply to all of them by their performance with their display of strong support to democracy and Erdoğan during the weekend, which, to say the least was magnificent. This was a spontaneous action as the Turkish people stood up to the occasion. Eat your heart out Wall Street Journal, eat your heart out New York Times and eat your heart out Washington Post!